


Love and Knitted Gear

by DarkJediQueen



Series: A Very Sterek Winter Fest 2021 [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A Very Sterek Winter Fest 2021, Alternate Universe, M/M, No Hale Fire, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29018853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Derek didn't expect to fall in love over tea, knitted gear, and food.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: A Very Sterek Winter Fest 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123724
Comments: 20
Kudos: 240
Collections: A Very Sterek Winter 2021, Sterek Goodness





	Love and Knitted Gear

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Future  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : For A Very Sterek Winter Fest 2021 Theme of Winter Gear. This is a completed One-shot. There will be no more written in the universe.  
>  **Beta** : ScarsLikeVelvet

Stiles looked around the new little shop that had popped up while he was gone for three months. He had enjoyed living in New York City for the run of the cooking show, but he was glad to be home. There was no one inside the shop, so he took his time looking at everything. It was a strange little collection of things, and he wasn't sure what they had to do with each other. The only connection that he could figure out was that hot tea was drunk a lot when it was cold, and that was why there were hats, scarves, and gloves all around the store for sale and the tea and everything to do with tea.

"Can I help you?" a man asked.

Stiles turned to look at who was speaking, and he nearly dropped the basket he had picked up to carry his items in it. The man was fucking gorgeous, and Stiles wanted to climb him like a tree.

"I was just looking around, really. I've never been in here before."

"Well, there is a bell by the register to ring if you need anything. I just got a shipment in, and I am in the back sorting it."

"Not worried about someone stealing?"

"I have good cameras that will get the face of anyone who does something like that and the Sheriff likes me."

"I see, well, that's good. I'll holler if I need anything but at least when I want to check out." Stiles winked at him, and the man laughed before ducking into the back of the shop.

Stiles walked over to the tree with more than a few scarves on it. He picked up the brightest one there. It was neo shades of the rainbow and would look lovely around his neck. He hung it around his neck and looked down at it. He loved it. He also had left his scarf in New York, and he hated it. This one felt warm, and it was soft. The stitching was great, but Stiles could tell that it was handmade. His mother had crocheted, and he remembered sitting and counting the stitches as he went about her business. He had a good eye for that, and this was a damned good knitted scarf.

Happy with the scarf, Stiles went to look at the tea. He would try a few of the ones that he used for his various recipes and the ones that he had on offer in the restaurant and then go from there. If these teas were better than the ones that he drove to San Francisco for, when his contract with them was up in a month, Stiles wouldn't renew and would work with this guy. It also allowed him to see the guy.

Stiles found close enough versions of all of the teas that he used in his recipes, as well as a few ones that made ideas pop into his head. He carried the basket over to the chair in one corner, laid out the new teas, and grabbed the notebook from his messenger bag. He worked on writing down the ideas so that he didn't lose them. He laughed as he looked at them. It was going to be perfect for his new spring menu. He left the basket where it was and grabbed a few teas that he had liked the sound of for his drinks for the day. Coffee had been a way to manage his ADHD for a few years while in college and then culinary school after that, but it had started to mess with his stomach if he drank anything more than a cup in the morning, so he drank tea and a lot of it during the day to keep his mind focused.

With a small fortune in tea, Stiles headed to the register. He pressed the bell to get the guys' attention and waited. He eyed the things at the register, including little creatures that were fucking adorable. He found one that was a cup of what looked like green tea.

"How much?" Stiles asked as he lifted it up.

"That one is not for sale. It's just a mock-up. I have a set that I sell." The guy reached below the counter and pulled out a box. Inside was seven different little cups that were various kinds of tea. There were three that looked like they were black teas. One was a standard white cup with black tea, the second's cup was made up to look like the English flag, and the last had star anise stitched into it: Earl Grey and Chai, Stiles bet.

"I'll take it. I have a tea stand at my restaurant where people can pick out tea to drink iced for hot with meals. These will be good decorations on top of the canisters that I have for the teas."

"Is that what all of this is for?" the man asked with a frown on his lips.

"No, it's for me to try and see if I like them enough to get a contract with you to buy your tea and sell it there. My staff and I will compare this to the brand I get from San Francisco before we make the decision. Some of these are used in drinks and desserts, and even one of them will go on top of a steak in a rub fashion. I want to try it all first, though," Stiles said.

"Interesting. You have a restaurant close to here?" the man asked.

"Yeah, I do." Stiles wasn't offering up anything other than that.

The guy rang up Stiles, only stopping to take the tag off his scarf before totaling Stiles out. He rattled off the price and set up the machine to have Stiles pay with his card. He would work out how much to charge to the restaurant and add back into his personal account once he got home. He wasn't making the guy ring up two of them. He laughed as he saw some kind of discount when he was handed the receipt. He would have to look up what that set of letters denoted online as he didn't know it.

"You'll have to let me know how it goes with my tea," the guy called out as Stiles made his way to the door.

"I will."

* * *

Derek hated it when Cora picked where they were going for a meal. He would rather go to a burger joint or a diner, but she always picked fancy places where he had to dress up a little. He was in a new pair of black jeans and a dress shirt. His hair was a mess, but then she didn't expect anything different.

"I hear the food here is to die for," Cora said.

Derek didn't pay that close of attention as Cora pulled into the parking lot and up to the valet stand. There were four different restaurants in the small area, and all of them had a shuttle and valet service from this parking lot. The confab of restaurants had been a step up for Beacon Hills, adding in something that it had been lacking.

In the near-decade that Derek had been gone, he found that Beacon Hills was recovering well from the slump that it had hit before he had gone to college. Derek had gone out into the world after college and not really come home at all in those ten years.

Derek got out of the car, laughing a little inside when the valet who rushed overdid a double-take when Cora got out of the driver's seat.

Once inside, they were seated.

"How long have you waited for an open spot?" Derek asked.

"Three months. Laura canceled on me, so you were left to go."

"Why not Spencer?" Derek asked.

"Spencer wouldn't come here if I paid him unless it was on a date with Ashley. They have spots next week," Cora said.

There was no menu set down in front of them, and Derek raised his eyebrows at that.

"You'll see," Cora said with a smile.

Derek frowned at that. A minute later, a pitcher of water was set down on the table and a tablet. Derek raised his eyebrows at that. "We have to order ourselves?" Derek asked.

"You make it sound like it's the worst thing. The tablet holds the entire menu and all options that you can do. You can leave notes for each section and change things right up until your meal is marked to be fired. The waitstaff leaves you alone unless you ping the section on the tablet that tells you that you want them for something. you can press when you need a refill."

Derek actually kind of liked that. He liked to be left alone, and more often than not, he had waitresses that flirted with him, waiters as well. He picked up the tablet and looked at the meals on it. He noticed that there were two paper menus underneath it. Cora grabbed one of them.

The menu was good, there wasn't a dish on it that Derek didn't want to try. He stopped, though, when he came along the drink section, and he saw the name of a tea company from San Francisco on there. He looked around and saw his little knitted teacups on a station that had a lady standing at it.

"Excuse me," Derek said. He got up and walked over to where the tea was. He had thought the guy was some kind of bakery chef or something like it.

The options were limitless, it seemed for the tea. Even the option to get bubble tea, which Derek found, was the only thing he missed since Beacon hills didn't have a shop for it.

"And for you, Sir?" the woman asked when it was Derek's turn.

"Um, how do I do this?" Derek asked.

"Do you know your table number?"

"No."

"Okay, where are you...oh, Mister Hale. You are at table seventeen."

"You know me?"

"No, I know Cora. She said she was coming here tonight with you. Okay, so I add the bill to your tab. So what would you like?"

"Large iced Earl Grey latte, please, no sweeter, and then I would love a chai boba tea, light sugar."

"We have brown sugar boba that is sweet, and with the syrup on them, it makes it good. Just that sugar?"

"Yes."

"Awesome. A waiter will bring them out to you as soon as they are done."

"Thanks." Derek slipped back to the table, and he found Cora grinning at him.

"So they do a stand outside during nice weather, or they are just inside of here in bad weather. You can get your boba tea whenever you want."

"Really?' Derek asked. He turned to look at the tea stand to see that it was indeed movable. It was in two sections, it seemed.

"The canisters and the like stay there but the rest of it goes. I stop and get it all the time. I'm shocked you don't do it at your shop."

"I didn't realize that there was a need for it. The machine is kind of expensive for the top, and I wasn't going to put that much into it."

"Well, Stiles has been talking about setting up a shop front for just the bubble tea, kind of like a kiosk somewhere. Maybe talk with him about something. I know you have that little shop next door."

"Yeah, half profits would be better than no profits. I'll talk to him when he comes to talk to me about my tea."

"He's going to use your tea? I'll be in heaven."

"He picked some up, things that are pretty close to what he has now. Said he was going to try them with his recipes and his staff and see if he likes me better than the place he gets now."

"He will. You do so well with your tea."

Derek nodded as he took the tablet when Cora offered it and started to place his order for food. His iced latte came out first, and he saw that boba tea wasn't put into a cup as it normally was with the plastic one punched a hole through to get the straw there. It didn't fit with the whole ambiance of the place. Instead, it was in a normal glass with a large bore reusable straw in it. Derek realized that the table didn't have straws either.

"The cups and lids of the bubble tea are all compostable, and there are bins around town that you can throw the cups into. A few other businesses have been getting them as well, and the cans are pretty full some days."

Derek listened to Cora chattering about things in town while waiting for their appetizers to be brought out.

Dinner was spectacular, and Derek was kind of sad when his steak was gone. He was looking forward to dessert, though.

The tart that was brought out made Derek's mouth water. He could see the tea in the crust, ground but not nearly as fine as most spices were. He stopped, though, when he saw the bits on the top and the pearl sugar. It was his tea. For a few seconds, Derek was pissed until he saw Stiles at the side of the room heading toward them.

"Saw you in the room when I checked earlier and couldn't help it. I made up the crust this morning to have staff try this tomorrow before, and I thought I should get your opinion. I didn't actually start to use it with paying customers without talking to you," Stiles said.

"I'm glad. I was a little pissed off for a few seconds."

"Enjoy, and make sure to leave a note on the bill about what you think. I need to get back in as the herb chicken isn't going to fry itself. Cora, dearest, always a pleasure." Stiles tipped his head at Cora before he went back to the kitchen.

"I saw your little cups over there. He buys those as well?" Cora asked.

'Yes. He said he was going to set them on his tea canisters. I believed him but also kind of didn't."

Cora laughed and dug into her small pie.

Derek's tart was delicious. The crust has a lovely flavor of the tea and that crust saltiness that Derek really loved. The whole fucking meal was good, and Derek wondered at how long it would take for him to be able to come back.

* * *

"Hello," Derek said as Stiles came in the front door of his shop.

"Hello, do you have a few moments?"

"I'm the only one here at the moment, but as long as you don't mind stopping talking when someone comes in, I do."

"Sure. I have nothing else to do today. It's my day off from actually cooking, but it's an office day, and I have all office stuff taken care of since I couldn't sleep last night."

"Out here, fine?" Derek asked. He saw that Stiles did look tired. He looked like he hadn't slept in longer than just last night. Derek got up and brewed up some tea that was supposed to help people relax.

"Yeah." Stiles dropped into the second stool at the counter when someone visited Derek, usually family.

Stiles had a stack of papers with him that he spread out along the counter before stacking them into a certain order. He handed over a single sheet of paper first.

"That's the agreement I had with the other company. If you want to keep it the same, we can do that. My lawyer has all of the stuff looked over, but I'm sure your family has a lawyer who will want to look at it all.

"My uncle, Peter."

'Ah, well, I guess then maybe I might need to get a new one."

"He's yours as well?" Derek asked.

"He's the only one I trust in Beacon Hills with that shit."

"I'm sure he will be fine for both of us," Derek said. He looked at the paperwork. The rates were generous, and the prices that everything would be bought at. "I had a different idea. The shop next door is mine too. I see a lot of foot traffic during the day and wanted to do something with it. Why don't we do a joint venture with the shop next door?"

"Joint venture?"

"Tea and pastry shop? Or we can just expand this. Move the bubble tea thing here, and everyone can come here and get things."

"That could work. That could really work. I like that idea. Still doesn't help about this thing here. Wanting to use your tea in my restaurant."

"Buy it wholesale, and we will be fine. I don't need anything like this. Derek shook the paper. "Word of mouth and the foot traffic of your pastries will get me the boost in sales I need. I know that you have the clientele for that. What made you use tea?"

"I love tea. Coffee started to give me stomach issues, so I've learned to adapt to tea and then realized how versatile the flavors are. I don't add weird sugars to anything, so most of the stuff will be easy to move over here. Would need a new latte machine, but we can easily swing that. Fifty-fifty?" Stiles asked.

"Sure. Peter has the stuff needed to open a joint venture for that joint. We can put a wall in here and make these chops and that shop accessible from each location."

"We can work out that stuff later. So I have an order I will need in ten days. I'll be placing something like this every two weeks." Stiles started to flip through a bunch of the paperwork until he found what he was looking for.

Derek saw many charts and various things in the paper as he flipped through them.

"What is all of that?"

"Um, well, charts of how much I see of each of the desserts and the teas. The profit margin that I made as one of the places I talked to before I found you wanted a certain percentage of each of the teas and desserts and steaks sold. My prices can actually change a little now that you are practically giving me the tea. I'll need logos and such, and I'll make sure that you like what I do with them before posting it all up. Come to lunch...Wednesday? Does Wednesday work for you?"

"Yes, it does. I would love to go on a date with you."

Stiles nearly dropped all of his papers as he looked up at Derek. 

"A date, I was thinking about paperwork. I can have the brand designs ready to go for then. I didn't...Well, I just...fuck." Stiles dropped the rest of his papers, and he looked to be at a loss for words. Which was something that Derek didn't think he could be given what he had learned about Stiles from Cora. They had gone to school together, and while they weren't friends, Cora knew of him and knew how he was in school. 

Derek wasn't sure what the look on Stiles' face was, but he wasn't sure that he would like it. He was pretty sure that Stiles was going to say no. 

"Fucking hell, yes. Yes. We will do business on Tuesday for breakfast and then a lunch date. I won't have an evening off until a week from today unless we go tomorrow night. So that all depends on you." 

"Tuesday and Wednesday are fine. I don't open until ten on Tuesday, so breakfast at seven?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, yeah, that works."

"Also, I have a gift for you," Derek said. He reached under the counter and pulled out the beanie he had made for Stiles to match the scarf he had bought. 

"Dude!" Stiles snagged it from his hand as soon as it was visible. He pulled it onto his head with a grin on his face. He looked adorable like that. 

Derek could see him knitting many things for Stiles to wear, and he would wear each of them with a smile on his face. 

"Cora had a picture of you from some winter festival at school. You were in a beanie with a scarf and a hoodie. It was you and a group of kids. Everyone else looked like they would rather be anywhere but where they were, but you looked like you were having the time of your life."

"Oh, the Club. LGBTQ+ club's winter fundraiser. All the money went to the local shelter and helped those who needed help making ends meet after being kicked out of the home. I always had a blast, but then I was the mascot for them. I wasn't cool enough to get a spot as the president or anything, but I made everyone have fun while they were there—I kind of miss that. I wonder if they still do that. I could set up a booth." Stiles' eyes kind of went unfocused.

Derek snapped his fingers. 

"Oh, sorry. Yeah, I'll look into that later. So, we should exchange numbers. I promise I won't send any images of naked body parts which should not be naked in public that are human without being asked."

"And not human?" Derek asked.

"No one says no to cute cat pics. I sometimes spam them to people. So the number." Stiles grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote down his number before sliding it over.

Derek saw it was one of the sheets that Stiles had brought over for the business venture. He looked like he had more paperwork than even Peter would bring. Derek entered Stiles' number and then texted Stiles with a Pride flag. 

Stiles laughed when his phone went off, and he sent back a picture of him at what looked like Pride the year before in Beacon Hills. According to Cora, the Pride festival was short, only a day long, but it was fun. Stiles' face was painted in bisexual flag colors, and his hair was a wig that was standard Pride colors. He looked happy. 

Derek made that picture Stiles' contact image. He found a picture that he liked of himself and texted that back to Stiles so that Stiles had one for his contact image. He smiled at Stiles as the younger man smiled at him. 

"So Tuesday?" Stiles asked. 

"Yes."

"Good." Stiles was blushing as he slipped out of the shop, leaving most of his papers behind. 

Derek grabbed them up and slipped them under his counter, where he kept his papers. He would give them back to Stiles later.

* * *

The sound of laughter drew Derek into the main room of the house. He walked over to where his mother was looking out the window. Most of the family was outside and having a lot of fun, but Derek narrowed in on Stiles with ease between the hat, scarf, gloves, and the flash of the neck of the sweater that Derek had knitted him stood out against the snow. 

"You chose well," Talia said. 

"He makes me happy," Derek said.

"And that's why you chose well. He makes you smile again. You've not had that in a while. He actually made Peter choke at breakfast this morning. It was wonderful. He is good with the kids, and he is a wonderful cook."

Derek watched as Stiles fell down and took one of the kids with him. He laughed before he turned away to grab a towel to dry off Stiles when he came inside. Stiles met him at the door with a grin on his face. He looked happy, and his cheeks were flushed. Stiles leaned in for a kiss. Derek gladly gave it. 

"Okay, I know I hated the idea of heading up here, but I love this. I wouldn't mind coming up just the two of us sometime in the spring or before the snow melts for the season."

"We can do that. We own this."

"Really?" Stiles asked. 

"Yes. It was something that my father bought mom for their twentieth wedding anniversary. The kids are allowed to come up here as long as no one else is up here. This is the first time I have brought anyone to the family gatherings up here."

"Me?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, you. In your fuzzy hat and fluffy scarfs." Derek tugged on Stiles' scarf and then pulled him in for a deeper kiss. He would keep covering Stiles in all of the winter gear that he could make him because he gave him something every time; Stiles acted like it was precious. 

Stiles was precious to Derek, and he would keep him forever.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story! 
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot.


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